By Richard Manning. As an architect and sustainability consultant, I work on many green building projects. Unfortunately, the fast pace of design and construction projects coupled with work travel doesn’t often give me a chance to visit the finished building.

Many people are unaware that the blue jeans worn by your favorite celebrities may end up in your walls. No, not as trophies from an auction house, but as insulation to keep out the cold.

We all have something that gets our goat. Something that’s just not right and needs to be fixed. For David Gottfried, owner of the greenest home in America, the property appraisal system is broken and needs overhauling now.

Of all people, we’d expect David Gottfried to max out on alternative energy and water conservation. After all, he founded the U.S. and World Green Building Councils, and his Oakland, California, home recently earned the highest-ever LEED Platinum certification and GreenPoint Rating.

Efficiency. Not a word that usually makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Yet David and Sara Gottfried have applied the genius of “and” by making their award-winning home welcoming, comfy, and highly efficient.

In citing the top three factors that drive real estate valuation, the universal drum beat ‘Location, Location, Location’ has been around forever. For sure, location is a big part of the green home, but to create the greenest of homes we need to step it up a level.

David and Sara Gottfried’s Oakland, California home is the ne plus ultra of green by design. Based on its LEED Platinum certification and GreenPoint Rating, the recent restoration of their 1915 Craftsman house has generated the highest green scores of any home in the United States. Their property is off-the-charts green.

Bamboo. Can’t go a day without somebody telling us he’s walking on it, sleeping on it, cooking with it, knitting with it, writing letters on it, or wearing it.

Prefab – the word itself evokes 1950s suburban Levittown, cheap-and-cheesy, practical plywood boxes. Emergency housing at best, drab habitation for human hamsters. But look now: pre-fabricated buildings are having a Cinderella moment. Driven by the sustainable design movement, ‘Prefab 2.0’ is a vast improvement over the dreary mass construction methods of the past.

When choosing new kitchen countertops, more people are turning to recycled glass as a sustainable, sturdy, and stylish option.

Image source: www.Duro-design.com
Great floors do not just serve a function. Natural cork happens to be a floor covering option that substantially enhances the ecological sensibility of the space. Cork is a renewable resource that is harvested from the bark of the tree every nine years, causing no damage to the tree.
The cork oak tree primarily [...]

The Uptown apartments, a transit-oriented, sustainable development located in the heart of Oakland’s historic arts and entertainment district, has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as Oakland’s first LEED Silver certified multi-family project. LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is the nationally recognized standard for sustainable [...]

The Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD) is leading by example by taking the low-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey from an area in need of repair into an urban eco-village. Leading the revitalization of an emerging arts and cultural district, Lincoln Park could be considered one of the nation’s best practices in sustainable urban [...]

ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA — Warren Wilson College, the only college or university in North Carolina with a LEED Gold Certified Building, now has a second Gold building on its campus.
The Village South residence hall, part of a two-building, 80-bed community that opened in August 2006, becomes the first dormitory in the state to achieve LEED [...]

30 Citibank and CitiFinancial branches designed with sustainable features
NEW YORK–As part of its commitment to address global climate change, Citi announced that it is the first company to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) pre-certification for a retail commercial interior prototype through a pilot U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) program.
New CitiFinancial branches in [...]

Press Conference Scheduled To Unveil Plans For Two New 75,000 sq.ft. Office Buildings
DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tyler Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: TYL), a leading provider of end-to-end information management solutions and services for local governments, announced plans for a real estate investment that will create a major new Class A office development in Lubbock. The company has purchased approximately [...]

ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. – Chevron Corp. today announced the opening of the company’s first LEED certified building and the first gold certified LEED building in the state of Louisiana. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a certification program of the United States Green Building Council. LEED has a rating [...]

Innovative Mix Reduces Use of New Resources by 70%
NORCO, Calif. – In the constantly evolving building industry, there is more pressure than ever for builders to adhere to green-building standards and to qualify for The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System project points.
To easily make at least one aspect of [...]

Projected LEED Platinum certified building is most energy efficient, sustainable building in the Upper Midwest; one of less than 50 of its type in the world
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. – Great River Energy kicked off dedication ceremonies for its new LEED-Platinum headquarters by announcing a new revolving loan fund for LEED-certified projects as well as [...]

From Energy-Efficient Appliances and Environmentally-Friendly Lighting to Magnetic “Do Not Disturb” Signs, ELEMENT Creates All New Green Hotels
Great for the Earth and Great for Guests, ELEMENT to Offer Healthier, Cleaner Environments and a No-Compromise Eco-Chic Guest Experience